September 12, 2004
Bringing the news from Baghdad
The Toronto International Film Festival
"A n adult paradise" is hardly how most would think of the living arrangements of U.S. Army soldiers during the recent invasion of Iraq, but that’s how Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Rabena, commander of the 2/3 Field Artillery unit (the "Gunners") jokingly describes his unit’s base: the late Uday Hussein’s Al Azimiya Palace in Baghdad. Michael Tucker (pictured at right) and Petra Epperlein’s documentary Gunner Palace – undeniably sympathetic toward the soldiers and yet unabashedly against the war – gives individual soldiers a chance to tell their own stories about the chaos and devastation in Iraq. Attending the screening were Tucker, Epperlein, Capt. Jon Powers (pictured at left) and Capt. Chris Lovell, two of the soldiers featured in Gunner Palace. "It was important to get the real story," said Capt. Powers. "Life over there was not what they show on CNN. Donald Rumsfeld has to see this movie." Through the film’s personal and intimate portrait of the soldiers as people, their experiences are given a voice. "Films don’t change politics, people change politics," says Tucker. "I just want people to talk about the war."
